DC.watch (Click here to read the translation) interviewed MR. Tian Rong Jin, Managing Director Canon Image Communication Business Division. He unveiled a couple of interesting things about their mirrorless plan. I don’t speak japanese and the google translation tool is not really 100% reliable. I ask my japanese readers to check if everything I understood is correct:

1) Canon will release a mirrorless system within 2012

2) First comes the image quality and than the downsizing. There should be a perception that the new mirrorless camera is a clear step towards from a classic compact camera. That statement clearly goes against Nikon’s decision to offer a mirrorless system camera with a smaller than m43 sensor (Click here to see the nIkon 1 system).

3) The lenses for the new mirrorless system need to be small.

It’s quite a surprise to see Canon talk that openly about mirrorless. And there is definitely a reason why they are now talking about it. I guess they want to warn the market by saying: “Hey don’t buy Sony, m43 or Fuji…wait for us!“. TO me it sounds like they will launch a new APS-C mirrorless system with a bunch of nice compact lenses. Photokina could be the right place for that.

One thing is sure: 2012 will be the year of mirrorless cameras. And I am here to give you every small bits of news and rumors I can get! Starting from the next post when I will talk about the exact Fuji X Pro 1 launch date and hour ;)

One word….WOW! :)

I got this images and specs from the latest February issue of the french Responsesphoto magazine (Click here to see the article). The screenshot you see here on top is actually the very first image of the full and final Fuji X PRO 1 mirrorless and interchangeable lens camera. It really looks like the digital version of the amazing designed . Responsephoto camera specs:
– Three new lenses: 18mm (27mm equivalent) f/2.0, 35mm (53mm equivalent) f/1.4 and 60mm (90mm equivalent) f/2.4
– Responsephoto says the Camera+35mm lens kit will cost 1.300 Euro. That’s actually just a bit higher than the [shoplink 100018]Fuji X100[/shoplink] price. The other two lenses will cost 600 Euro each.
– Responsephoto says the sensors name is X-Trans! R. writes that Fuji took some ideas from the classica film technology to create the new sensor which will beat the image quality of all current fulflrame sensors! The photosites will be of 6 different colors and disposed randomly, therefore moire will be avoided.
– There is no Anti Aliasing filter on the sensor.
– The lenses are made of metal.
– The camera has the new X-mount. The flange distance will be of 17.7 mm.
– The viewfinder is hybrid (optical and electronic). The optical viewfinder changes the view depending on the kind of prime lens you sue. This again is an idea coming from the !
– The autofocus sensor is…external! There is a special AF sensor on the camera body!

UPDATE: Here is the pic of the new lenses

The camera is going to be announced next Tuesday! It’s time for you to join the Mirrorlessrumors comunity by following our RSS feed (Click here), join us on Facebook (Click here) and follow our Tweets (Click here). You really don’t want to miss any Fuji news ;) I am going to follow the announcement live! Check us daily!

Finally “someone” leaked the real name and specs of the camera. Wellsfargoadvisors (Click here) is sharing to us the official info: “The highlight of the offerings is the Fujifilm X-Pro1, which is a highly featured compact system camera. Fuji-filim said it will build on the success of the [shoplink 100018 ebay]X100 model[/shoplink], by adding a camera that features a custom-developed 16-megapixel APS-CMOS sensor incorporating a new filter array and the company’s proprietary EXR processor technology.
The camera also includes a second-generation hybrid view-finder and takes three prime interchangeable Fuji-non lenses, all with fast apertures.
The lenses include: the 18mm (27mm equivalent) f/2.0, 35mm (53mm equivalent) f/1.4 and 60mm (90mm equivalent) f/2.4.”

The name of the camera we found through a french magazine was right after all! But what I am wondering is what that new “filter array” is…..could it be a sort of foveon sensor? Would explain why a 16 megapixel sensor would have a higher resolution than all current FF sensors!

P.S.: And I absolutely like the selection of lenses. A fast wide angle, a must have normal lens and a portrait lens. Sounds good for the beginning!

And finally we know what Canons plan is to counter attack the mirrorless systems. An super compact camera with FIXED(!) zoom lens and with ASP-C sized sensor(!) is coming! Here is the full info:

Wellsfargoadvisors reports that “Canon is unveiling two PowerShot Elph-series point-and-shoot cameras and a new flagship Power-Shot G-series model. The G1X (shipping in February at a $799 suggested retail) will be positioned for advanced amateurs and professionals looking for a walk-around point-and-shoot model and offers a large 1.5-inch 14.3-mega-pixel CMOS image sensor and a 4x (28-112mm) optical zoom lens.
It is said to have a shallow depth of field and an aperture range of F/2.5-16 affording better low-light capability.
Other new features include 14-bit RAW file support, a new DIGIC 5 image processor with improved low-light support, high-speed burst HQ shooting of up to 6fps/4.5 fps at full resolution, multi-area white balance adjustment, expanded Smart Auto settings, child-weighted face detection system, handheld night scene and HDR mode. It will shoot up to FullHD 1080 video and includes a 720p Movie Digest mode to automatically compile a video log of all still shots.“

So Canon doesn’t want to create a new interchangeable system but instead launch a terrific high end compact camera. Don’t know what you think guys. But this sounds like a pretty amazing camera. I wonder how the lens will look.  Will it be retractable like in normal compact cameras? Smart move from Canon! Let’s see if it’s enough to scare the mirrorless camera producer.

After all it seems that Samsung and Fuji only will announce some new mirrorless stuff. Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and Nikon will not have any new mirrorless camera or lens announcement. Maybe Sigma will show some m43 prototypes but that’s it.

On the CES website (Click here) you can see the full press event schedule. On Wednesday January the 12th we will have the Fuji announcement at 12.45pm Las Vegas time. That’s about 3.45pm in New York, 20.45pm in London, 21.45 in Berlin or 3,45 in the morning on Tokyo. Two hours later Samsung will announce the NX20.

I will be here to give you live updates about any news I can find. Let’s see if that Fuji camera is really going to affect my (and your) bank account :)

Right before the official announcement there has been another Fuji mirrorless camera leak at Omuser (via Photorumors). The original image has been removed from the chinese website. As you see the camera has a grip and comes in a full black version. As noticed by one of our readers it really has the same . Difficult to guess what size the sensor has but it doesn’t look like it is a fullframe. Anyway, you will not have to wait a long time to see the real camera along the real specs. It’s going to be displayed on Monday at the CES show in Las Vegas!

I have been just told by our sources that Samsung has no plan yet to release the medium format camera prototype you can see on the image on top. The project is still on hold and Samsung is still considering if it makes sense to release such a system. One more interesting backstory: The latest sensor tested for the medium format prototype was 42x28mm big!

If you aree looking for a mirrorless medium format camera than you have to cross the fingers and hope that Pentax will get serious with their alike mirrorless project hinted a couple of weeks ago at Impressjapan!